Thane was sitting in the cabin that the Hanar had given to him for temporary accommodations, lost in memories of Shepard that he had been replaying over and over in his head in the days since waking. He went through ever memory he had of her, good and bad, going over every inch of her skin, her face, her hair. He would never forget her, no matter how hard he could try, so he might as well lose himself in whatever he had left. His reflections were interrupted by a comm signal. Something that had taken getting used to was no longer receiving signals to an Omni-tool, but directly to his brain. Communications officer Jayla's voice came through, clear as though the young Drell was standing next to him.

"You have an incoming communications request, Sere Krios, from someone identifying themselves as 'Joker'. Shall I patch it through?" Thane's eyes snapped open. The Normandy was within comm range!

"Yes, please, Ms. Hetsan." A moment passed, and the voice of Normandy's pilot filled his mind.

"Thane! Heard you were alive! How's it going? What's being back from the dead like?" Joker seemed to be his usual chipper, sarcastic self.

"I'm fine, Joker. You sound well. I take it the Normandy is nearing the Sol system?"

"As talkative as always I see. Yeah, we're actually already in it, just passing Neptune. We'll be at Earth in a few minutes. Want to come and visit?" Thane closed his eyes. Would visiting the Normandy be too painful? Seeing all of the places marked by Shepard's presence, where she had lived and laughed and loved would be difficult. He already knew, though, that he needed to go. He had to see the places were his memories lived, and find what was left of Shepard there.

"Yes, thank you Joker. Let me know when you're stopped and I'll take a shuttle over."

"Roger that. See you in a few. Normandy out."

It was good to see the Normandy's crew. There were a few new additions, and EDI being in a body was something he would have to get used to, but much of the ship was exactly how Thane remembered it. Tali greeted him at the airlock, wordlessly wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close in a shared gesture of friendship and understanding. Garrus was with her. Thane noticed that they had been holding hands when he entered, but didn't say anything. He was glad that they had finally recognised the mutual attraction that he had thought obvious from the start. EDI also embraced him in a very human display of sympathy. He returned the hugs, but there wasn't much feeling behind them. He felt empty, as though all of his life had been drained out. This wasn't like the battle sleep he had been in before meeting Shepard. It was as though he was still dead. His body was up and walking around, but all of the life had gone out of him.

Tali and EDI, who now used the moniker as an actual name instead of an acronym, persuaded him to stay, and he found himself seated in the familiar surroundings of life support. He sat where Shepard sat when she had come to speak with him. He unpacked his small box of possessions that had been shipped over from the Hanar ship, and set about trying to find some remnants of Shepard in the ship.

The commander's quarters were relatively untouched; nobody wanting to intrude on a space that still felt like it belonged to Shepard. Thane noted the framed photo of himself on her nightstand, his heart tightening at the thought of her wanting his presence with her in some way. The rest of the room was exactly how he remembered it. Nothing had been broken too badly in the crash, and it seemed that someone had finally bought Shepard an automatic fish feeder, judging by the fact that there were actual live fish swimming in the glowing blue tank along the wall. A wistful smile crossed Thane's face as he remembered her constant struggle to actually keep anything alive in her fish tank.

She shakes her head while standing on a chair, one hand above her head, holding a net that dips into the tank and pulls out the corpses of yet another group of fish who have suffered death by starvation due to her frequent forgetfulness regarding feeding. He watches from his perch on the edge of her bed, chuckling as she makes frustrated noises.

"You'd think I'd be able to keep a few stupid fish alive, what with being responsible for the lives of every person in the galaxy. I can't believe I killed another batch. I'm a fish murderer."

He had found her incompetence with aquatic pets endearing, an imperfect side to Shepard that few people got to see. He had also enjoyed her penchant for purchasing model ships to decorate the glass case that separated her desk from the bedroom area. These, too, sat in the same places that he remembered, though it appeared that someone had recently replaced the glass. It must have been damaged by the Normandy's sudden descent onto whatever planet they had landed on. It spoke to the crew's initial reluctance to believe the worst, that someone had not only repaired the cabinet, but replaced every small ship in it in the same manner that they had originally been situated. Things must have been knocked around and fallen during the crash landing, but everything was exactly where Shepard had left it, from the alarm clock near the bed to the datapads on the desk. Someone had come in this room for the sole purpose of tidying it up.

He became aware of the sound of elevator doors opening in the hall, and the sound of soft footfalls outside. The door to Shepard's room opened, and Liara was standing in the doorway.

He hadn't gotten to know the young Asari very well. Their only interaction had been during a mission to take down the Shadow Broker and rescue a young man named Feron. From what he had observed during that undertaking, however, he knew that she and Shepard were very close. Liara had been part of all this since the beginning, joining up with Shepard back before she took down Saren and became the hero of the Citadel. He knew that Liara felt Shepard's passing as acutely as he.

"I cleaned up in here after the crash," she said, confirming his suspicion, "I didn't want her to come back to find such a mess. I suppose that I wasn't really ready to…" she trailed off, and Thane finished the thought for her,

"To believe that she wasn't coming back."

Liara nodded. "I'm sure that, wherever she is, she knows how much she is loved."

Thane swallowed the lump that had taken up a semi-permanent residence in his throat the past few days. "Loved more than anyone. She saved the whole galaxy," he said, and Liara nodded, and then came to sit by him on the bed. While he knew that Shepard had seen Liara as a sister, he also had understood the way that the older woman had looked at her commander when she thought she wasn't being watched. Both the Drell and the Asari were mourning the loss of a person they loved deeply. "I need to thank you, Liara," he said, "The time before retaking Earth must have been very difficult for Shepard. I am glad that she had someone by her side who cared for her." Liara's cheeks colored with a faint blush.

"I wasn't the only one. Garrus, Tali, Kaidan, EDI… even Joker. I think that the whole crew loved her, in their own ways. She was a rock, shielding us all from the storm. It wasn't easy on her… I've never seen Shepard so," Liara paused as she struggled for the right word, "So overwhelmed." Thane nodded. He had seen the same, when she had visited him on the Citadel. She had done her best to hide it, wanting to appear strong, but he could tell that the fate of the galaxy resting on her shoulders was taking its toll.

"Thank you, Liara, from myself as well," he said, and she looked at him, puzzled,

"What for?"

"For understanding."

They sat in companionable silence for a time, each lost in their own thoughts about the woman who had changed not just their lives, but the lives of every person in the galaxy. Thane lost track of time, and wasn't sure how long it had been when Liara stood.

"I should go," she said, "I hope… I hope that you'll be alright, Thane." He gave her a wan smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, and she left, leaving him to his memories.